After supper the men cleaned up the dishes while Sophie collected the mending and sat in a corner. Heinric captured Gabe and all but dragged him outside to look at a root he had found that was shaped like the crescent moon. Heinric had been talking about it all through supper. Gabe clapped him on the back and assured him it was the most wonderful root he had ever seen.
“Thank you, Gabe. I let you touch it.”
“Thank you, Heinric. You’re a good man.”
Heinric grinned his impossibly wide grin.
When they came back inside, Siggy and Dominyk were getting their instruments and everyone was settling down to listen.
“Gabe, Sophie told us you had to leave your lute in Hohendorf. Can I go upstairs and get another lute for you?” Vincz asked.
Gabe nodded. Vincz leaped up the steps two at a time.
Sophie was smiling at him, but when his eye caught hers, she looked down.
Gabe was glad to be invited to play. He’d been mentally rehearsing the song he’d written in Hohendorf, the song that was supposedly for the duchess but that he’d actually written with Sophie in mind. Now he could sing it just for her and tell her how beautiful he thought she was.
When Vincz got back with the instruments, Gabe and Siggy discovered a couple of songs they both knew, and they began to play.
There was something about music, the way it flowed through his body and mind and spirit all at the same time, that felt like an intimacy between him and the person listening to it. Never had that feeling been so strong in Gabe as now, when he was staring straight into Sophie’s eyes and playing for her. It was almost as if they were one, the same thoughts flowing from him to her and back, as the music filled the space between them.
Sophie tried to concentrate on her mending, but her stitches were going all awry. Finally, she simply gave up and watched Gabe play the lute with Siggy and Dominyk. He played as if he was born with the instrument in his hands. And his look of absorption made him even more handsome. She didn’t want to miss a single moment of his playing.
During the next song, he sang with Siggy, their voices blending harmoniously.
He kept his gaze on her while he sang, and her heart lodged in her throat, his warm brown eyes trapping hers. No one else seemed to exist, and he seemed to be singing the words directly to her. It was a song about a hunter in love with a dove who changed into a woman when the moon was full. It was as if they were the only two people in the room, as if he was strumming her soul, seeing straight into her heart with his penetrating brown eyes.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away until he finished the song and looked at Siggy. They spoke quietly. Then Gabe looked around at all the men who were sitting around the room.
“This next song I wrote a few days ago. For Sophie.” His gaze found her and he winked, his lopsided grin stealing her breath.
He started playing, looking down at his lute as he found the right notes. His head was bent, but she could see his concentration in the pursing of his lips and the slight crease of his forehead. When he began to sing, he looked up at her. His deep, clear voice was more beautiful than anything she’d ever heard before, so real and true, and the words of his song made her wish she could keep this moment in front of her forever.
Gabe’s eyes stayed locked on hers as he sang about her blue eyes and her heart of love, her grace and innocence. He compared her hair to ebony, her skin to a dove’s white feathers, and her lips to a rose.
Her face grew hot with self-consciousness at the words of his song, and tears welled in her eyes to think that he had written these verses about her. He couldn’t have meant them, because she was sure he hadn’t loved her when he’d written it. He’d surely been writing it for the duchess. But the look in his eyes as he sang the words told her that he meant them for her.
How was it possible for her to experience so much happiness? Her heart swelled inside her until she could barely breathe. Gabe loved her. Or at least he seemed to. He went on to sing more words of adoration, flowery declarations of her beauty and his helplessness to stop loving her.
When the song was over, Sophie’s face was still burning. She wanted to place her hands over her cheeks, but her hands were shaking and she didn’t want anyone to notice. She stared into her lap and took up her mending, trying to get her breathing under control. But she only pretended to sew. Her hands were too shaky to make a stitch.
Gabe and Siggy played more songs, but Sophie kept her eyes down as much as possible.
When the music was over, the men began clapping Gabe on the back and talking. Bartel came over to her to rewrap her bandage.
“Your arm is healing quickly,” Bartel said, “but it needs a bandage for a while longer.” She felt his eyes boring into her, staring at her face like he’d never done before. What was he thinking?